Essence of Vajira
Lakmali GUNAWARDENA
On March 15, Vajira, an icon of Sri Lankan dance, turns 79. I see her
in the school Chitrasena created and that she developed with him, where
now three generations of her family teach with her. My bond with this
famous family of dancers goes back 55 years when, as an eight year-old,
I entered their Kalayathanaya. I have had many teachers in several
countries who moulded my creativity. However, what Vajira instilled in
me has been sustained through time. These are among some of my
recollections:
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Vajira
Chitrasena |
1955: Too young to understand the ballet we are practising for, we
sit behind the set of a rock. With me are Mano, Shamalie Perera, Gotami
Devapura and Khema Jayawardena, a group of fish on stage for the length
of a scene, in Kindurangana that lasted maybe three minutes. Vajira Akka
- as we called her then - at 23 years, teaches us to move our arms and
hands like fins, her long plait tucked into her waist. My first lessons
in waiting for a cue.
The Chitrasena Kalayathanaya was in Colpetty those days, and we would
spend Saturday mornings playing in the open-air theatre, or watching
other students train till our class commenced. The beats called out then
were Indian bols of thith, thith, thei and the dance steps taught were a
mixture of Kathakali and Kandyan dance. Kumudini, Vajira's first attempt
at choreography, was a dance set to a song by Ananda Samarakoon and
featured Mano Perera as a kumudu flower which blooms in water in
moonlight, attracting a group of bees. The mudra she taught us for the
bee and flower, and the use of running sural for the moving bees, I only
understood later in adulthood. We had more fun being packed in a van and
being taken to perform in other schools where she taught.
*************
1957: Rehearsing Vajira's first children's ballet Vanaja, Gotami and
I are trained in some mornings for the part of Bandura - the flower of
the Pitcher plant that entices a bee to its death.
The rehearsals are with Albert Perera - now the famous Amaradeva -
playing violin and singing, with Chitrasena's brother Sarathsena, on
tabla. The movements for the flower are slow and graceful. The music for
the bee is fast.
Halfway through trying to make me slow my pace as the bee, she shouts
impatiently, "this child can't dance slow!" In his seat, from where he
watches her train us, Chitrasena comments, "those who can dance fast and
slow are the best dancers."
Teacher and pupil, checked by the guru, begin to repeat the steps.
That she excelled in this small piece is recorded in the reviews of that
time, as her Bandura, brought the house down each time it was performed.
Vajira had by then mastered how to create, tapping the best in her
students' talents.
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With fellow
dancers. Picture by Lakshman Nadaraja |
It's fit-on time for her first ballet Vanaja. I get into the
beautiful work of art Somabandu has designed for the pomegranate. I
can't move in the puffed orange costume, which starts at my neck and
reaches my knees! Vajira starts ripping off the elastic and wire that
holds me stiff like 'Tweedledum', and pulls the costume down to my waist
so I can dance. She insisted that what we wore shouldn't hamper our
movements. The practice costume she designed for us to free our limbs
for movement was later adopted by all schools.
In those years as a pupil, I learnt under Vajira the discipline of
stagecraft. Stagefright wasn't learnt or taught emotion. Moving as a
group was insisted on. How many minutes one has for a change of costume,
where one moves to with the spotlight drawn with white chalk on the
stage, I learnt from her.
************
1962: We are rehearsing the Vairodi vannama. At fifteen years Khema,
Gotami and I are dancing for the first time on stage with the seniors of
the Kalayathanaya - Vipuli, Kamala and Sumithra. Amaradeva introduces
the dance with a song.
This would be the last time I would dance with the troupe, as my
studies were given precedence and I was pulled out of the school.
**************
1963:I am in the audience, an undergraduate from Peradeniya, watching
Karadiya. I am moved by the dancing of my teacher whom I have watched as
a child, dance the swan and my favorite Gajaga Vannama.
She has choreographed a piece that would tour the island and many
countries overseas. Her style has incorporated the movements of the
Kohomba Kankariya. I feel the same elation watching Ginihora in 1968,
where Vajira excelled creating the lead role for Anjalika who had danced
as Nonchi Akka.
I wouldn't have minded being cast as a thief just for that glorious
moment of metamorphosis when the thieves are transformed into birds.
**************
1973: I am back, learning under Vajira. I also learn to appreciate
her teaching technique, her rigorous discipline and insistence on
perfection. An elbow drops, her voice rings out 'Hanh'.
The elbow lifts electrified! Singing is in her curriculum so that it
prepares students for state exams. Energized again, I sing and dance the
vannam with Upeka, Ravi, John Paul, Manel and Sunila.
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Vajira
training her students. Pictures by Lalith C Gamage |
Here I begin rehearsing my first play, where Vajira helps me
choreograph movements for songs I have written, lends me instruments to
use for rehearsals, designs the costume for the 'Yaka' with me, and when
I say "I can't," chides "you have had me as a teacher, how can you say
you can't?"
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1979: I make puppets with senior students in the Kalayathanaya for
Hapana. Vajira was in no mood to start on anything, as she has just
finished choreographing Kinkini Kolama for Upeka, the lead dancer. She
has made me put my idea into a script.
Discussing the production with her I realize that her canvas is
larger than mine. She is at the peak of her creativity, with abundant
artistic resources at her command.
At the music recording while Titus Nonis directs, she has to calm a
cantankerous Chitrasena. Nanda Malini and I marvel at the patience with
which she handles him.
***************
2011: The Chitrsena-Vajira Dance Foundation has moved "a hop, step
and a jump" - as Vajira describes it - from where I live. I have chosen
to create in another medium and am proud to be asked to write this short
piece for a teacher whose family is close to me.
My obeisance to Vajira - may she live long!
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